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Top Attractions in Veliko Turnovo Province

Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo Bulgarian pronunciation: [vɛˈliko ˈtɤ̞rnovo] is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred to as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famously known as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists with its unique architecture. The old part of the city is situated on the three hills Tsarevets, Trapezitsa, and Sveta Gora, rising amidst the meanders of the Yantra. On Tsarevets are the palaces of the Bulgarian emperors and the Patriarchate, the Patriarchal Cathedral, and also a number of administrative and residential edifices surrounded by thick walls. Trapezitsa is known for its many churches and as the former main residence of the nobility. During the Middle Ages, the city was among the main European centres of culture and gave its name to the architecture of the Tarnovo Artistic School, painting of the Tarnovo Artistic School, and to literature. Veliko Tarnovo is an important administrative, economic, educational, and cultural centre of Northern Bulgaria.

Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God

The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God is a former Eastern Orthodox cathedral in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, in north central Bulgaria. Located on top of the fortified Tsarevets hill in the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the cathedral was the seat of the Bulgarian patriarch from its construction in the 11th–12th century to its destruction in 1393. Standing on top of a late Roman church, the cathedral, reconstructed in the 1970s and 1980s, follows a cross-domed plan with a bell tower and a triple apse. Richly decorated on both the exterior and interior, its internal walls now feature modern frescoes, the presence of which has meant that it has not been reconsecrated. Though not active as a Christian place of worship, it has been open for visitors since 1985.

Nicopolis ad Istrum

Nicopolis ad Istrum or Nicopolis ad Iatrum was a Roman and Early Byzantine town founded by Emperor Trajan around 101–106, at the junction of the Iatrus and the Rositsa rivers, in memory of his victory over the Dacians. Its ruins are located at the village of Nikyup, 20 km north of Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria. The town reached its floruit during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, the Antonines and the Severan dynasty. The classical town was planned according to the orthogonal system. The network of streets, the forum surrounded by an Ionic colonnade and many buildings, a two-nave room later turned into a basilica and other public buildings have been uncovered. The rich architectures and sculptures show a similarity with those of the ancient towns in Asia Minor. Nicopolis ad Istrum had issued coins, bearing images of its own public buildings. In 447, the town was destroyed by Attilas Huns. Perhaps it was already abandoned before the early 5th century. In the 6th century, it was rebuilt as a powerful fortress enclosing little more than military buildings and churches, following a very common trend for the cities of that century in the Danube area. The largest area of the extensive ruins of the classical Nicopolis was not reoccupied since the fort covered only one fourth of it, in the southeastern corner. The town became an episcopal centre during the early Byzantine period. It was finally destroyed by the Avar invasions at the end of the 6th century. A Bulgarian medieval settlement arose upon its ruins later . Nicopolis ad Istrum can be said to have been the birthplace of Germanic literary tradition. In the 4th century, the Gothic bishop, missionary and translator Ulfilas obtained permission from Emperor Constantius II to immigrate with his flock of converts to Moesia and settle near Nicopolis ad Istrum in 347-8. There, he invented the Gothic alphabet and translated the Bible from Greek to Gothic. The names of two of the early bishops of the city are known: Marcellus and Amantius . The site was placed on the Tentative List for consideration as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.

Transfiguration Monastery

The Transfiguration Monastery or the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration of God is an Eastern Orthodox monastery located in the Dervent gorge of the Yantra River. It lies near the village of Samovodene, seven kilometres north of Veliko Tarnovo, in central northern Bulgaria. It is one of the five stauropegic monasteries of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It is thought that the monastery was founded in the 11th century AD as a cloister of the Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos. In 1360, when Tarnovo was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire and the traditions of hesychasm were popular in Bulgaria, it became an autonomous monastery on the order of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria. This is legendarily tied to the charity of Ivan Alexander's second wife Sarah-Theodora and their son Ivan Shishman, a reason to also call the monastery Sarah's or Shishman's monastery. After the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria, the monastery was plundered and burned several times by the Turks and eventually entirely destroyed. It was only reestablished in 1825 by father Zoticus of the Rila Monastery by means of donations. In 1832, a firman of the Ottoman sultan allowed the construction of a new monastery church; the church was designed by the noted Bulgarian National Revival architect Kolyu Ficheto and completed in 1834. The cross-shaped church features three apses, a single dome and a covered narthex. The icons and frescoes of the main church were painted by another famous artist, Zahari Zograf, who worked in the monastery between 1849 and 1851, after he finished his decoration of the Troyan Monastery. Among the more notable murals are those of the Last Judgment, the Wheel of Life, the Birth of the Mother of God, the Last Supper. Zograf also painted Saints Cyril and Methodius, as well as a self-portrait. In addition, the main church was richly decorated on the outside and a wood-carved and gold-plated iconostasis was installed. Between 1858 and 1863 Kolyu Ficheto constructed the seven-bell belfry, the residential buildings and the main entrance, as well as the underground chapel of Saint Andrew the First-called and the small Church of the Annunciation on top of it, with icons by Zahari Zograf's nephew Stanislav Dospevski.

Church of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki

The Church of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church in the city of Veliko Tarnovo in central northern Bulgaria, the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The church lies at the northeastern foot of the Trapezitsa and Tsarevets hills, on the right bank of the Yantra River, outside the city's medieval fortifications. Architecturally, it has a pentahedral apse and a cross-domed design with a narthex and a fore-apse space. It was once part of a large monastery and belonged in its southeastern part. The church's exterior is decorated with blind arches and colourful ornaments: glazed rosettes, suns, rhombs and other painted figures. The church was built of stone alternated with three rows of bricks. It is 15.75 by 8.40 metres in size. According to the account of Niketas Choniates, the church was the place where the anti-Byzantine Uprising of Asen and Peter was proclaimed in 1185; it was this uprising that led to the reestablishment of the Bulgarian Empire and the proclamation of Tarnovo for its capital. It is theorized that it was a royal church in the early years of the empire and it received donations from members of the Asen dynasty. According to the legend, the nobles Asen and Peter announced that the patron of Thessaloniki, the warrior saint Demetrius, would desert his city and come to Tarnovo to aid the Bulgarian rebels. The brothers built and inaugurated a church in his honour. The Church of St Demetrius was destroyed in the second half of the 13th century, probably due to an earthquake, but was reconstructed in the 1350s. A single-apse church was built nearby in the 1360s and existed until the 17th century; it used materials from the destroyed Church of St Demetrius. The monastery yard and the destroyed buildings became a predominantly Christian necropolis during the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. During the Bulgarian National Revival, the church was associated with the leatherworkers' guild. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Church of St Demetrius was plundered by robbers. In the second half of the 19th century it was in a very bad condition, which was noted by Bulgarian and foreign researchers, including Felix Philipp Kanitz. An earthquake in 1913 destroyed it completely, leaving only the apse and fragments of the original frescoes. The Church of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki was reconstructed beginning in 1977-1985 based on the available architectural remains and the example of better preserved Bulgarian churches from the same period. The project was headed by Teofil Teofilov. Of the original church, two layers of frescoes have been preserved: an early one dating either to the church's construction or to the second half of the 14th century and a later one painted after the 14th century.

Holy Forty Martyrs Church

The Holy Forty Martyrs Church is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church constructed in 1230 in the town of Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria, the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The Holy Forty Martyrs Church, an elongated six-columned basilica, has three semicircular apses and a narrow narthex from the west. Another building was added later to the west side of the church. The church interior was covered with mural painting probably in 1230. On the western addition some of the outer decoration survived revealing the traditional arches and coloured small ceramic plates inserted into the wall. It is not clear if the church has frescoes painted on the outer walls. Some of the Bulgarian Empire's most significant historical records are stored in the church, including Omurtag's Column, Asen's Column and the Border Column from Rodosto from the rule of Khan Krum. The columns of Khan Omurtag and khan Krum are written in Greek language. The inscription of the column of Krum "Fortress of Rodostro" has been turned upside down. The inscription of Omurtag is about building of a new glorious palace on Danube river, location is still unknown. The second part of the inscription is a legacy for the new generations to remember the deeds of Omurtag. These columns were placed in the church by Ivan Asen II as a tribute to his mighty ancestors.

Church of the Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a 19th-century Bulgarian Orthodox church in the northern Bulgarian town of Svishtov and one of the finest examples of late Bulgarian National Revival church architecture. A work of the best-known Bulgarian architect of the period, Nikola Fichev, the church was inaugurated on 19 September 1867 and constructed on the highest spot in the town. The three-naved church features a central dome and an elongated 30 m-long body with thin and high columns supporting the naves, as well as three smaller domes. The design of the façades is particularly remarkable. Fichev notably broke the Orthodox architectural canon by making the whole east façade a giant undulating apse. The iconostasis, 16 m long and an average 10 m high, was created by Anton Peshev from Debar in 1870-1872 and the 73 icons were painted by Nikolai Pavlovich, a master from Svishtov. The bell tower, stylistically a reference to Baroque architecture, was added in 1883-1886 and designed by Gencho Novakov. Several important figures, including the first Bulgarian Exarch Antim I , the Metropolitan of Tarnovo Ilarion Makariopolski and the eparchial metropolitan bishop Clement of Tarnovo have held services in the church. It was also visited by Russian Emperor Alexander II, who attended the service on 28 June 1877. Alexander II also donated six bells for the bell tower. The Church of the Holy Trinity suffered damage from an earthquake on 4 March 1977, but was subsequently restored. Today, the church with its iconostasis is a cultural monument of national importance.

Arbanasi

Arbanasi is a village in Veliko Tarnovo Municipality, Veliko Tarnovo Province of central northern Bulgaria, set on a high plateau between the larger towns of Veliko Tarnovo and Gorna Oryahovitsa. It is known for the rich history and large number of historical monuments, such as 17th- and 18th-century churches and examples of Bulgarian National Revival architecture, which have turned it into a popular tourist destination. The village's name comes from the Albanian word Arbërës or Arbanas. From this root word, the Turkish arnavut, was used to denote Albanians and other people that came from parts of Macedonia and Albania that had a large Albanian population. As of 2005, Arbanasi has a population of 291 and the mayor is Tosho Krastev. It lies at 43°6′N 25°40′E, 400 metres above sea level.
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